➤ The Division 2, the review 🎮

The world of video games really owes a lot to Tom Clancy. We mentioned it just yesterday, in view of this The Division 2 review, only the latest in a long series of titles that bear the name of the master of the techno-thriller who died prematurely in 2013. A name mistakenly considered a facade by those who think that the presence of Tom Clancy's signature on many titles Ubisoft is the daughter of a marketing operation, forgetting or ignoring that the Baltimore-based writer was responsible for the founding of Red Storm Entertainment, the development team behind the first, unforgettable Rainbow Six and more recently also the little gem for virtual reality which was Werewolves Within. Evident proof of Tom Clancy's influence on the world of video games is still tangible today in games such as The Division 2 and its predecessor, capable of recalling with their setting some of the atmospheres of a political fantasy plot imprinted in the memory of those who have read the his books. In addition to the name of Tom Clancy, in The Division 2 there is also a lot of Massive Entertainment, another team with twenty years of experience called to the final test of maturity after the launch of the franchise in 2016. In these three years, the Malmö studio has shown that it can learn from its mistakes, remedying situations that had in the first The Division led several players to turn up their noses. After a week of scavenging resources for our present camps around the city, we're finally able to tell you if The Division 2 can actually be everything its predecessor wasn't on release.

Setting and plot

If you are reading this review it is undoubtedly because you have an interest in The Division 2, but you may not have followed all the steps that led us to this final appointment. So let's start from the basics of the game, set as you know a Washington DC, a city that, as we have repeated several times, has less charm than the New York chosen for the first chapter. On the capital, however, Massive Entertainment has worked in an excellent way, precisely to bridge the differences with the Big Apple. The facts told in The Division 2 take place about seven months after the Black Friday bioterrorist attack, with which New York fell to its knees along with other cities, including the American capital.

While the first chapter showed us the events immediately following the incident with the arrival of the second wave of Division agents in New York, The Division 2 takes the next step, changing seasons to tell us a Washington DC struggling with an emergency situation now assimilated, in which however there continue to be critical issues such as the complete shutdown of the network Shade when summer is upon us. Our agent then comes into play to put the city back on its feet, getting in touch with those who are already working to recover a certain level of normality. The film of the resilience of the human race, however, opposed to the desire of some to take advantage of the situation to destroy the last shreds of civilization left: this is of course the case of the gangs that on our arrival put Washington DC to fire and sword, in which we therefore find as in the first chapter, organized groups of enemies intent on hindering our activities. From a point of view narrative, exactly like its predecessor, The Division 2 does not shine particularly, paying little attention to the story of events although the usual collectibles are present around the city with which to expand one's knowledge of what happened in Washington DC due to the virus. Our character is once again proposed as a kind of silent puppet, an interested spectator of the short interlude scenes which in fact serve to act as a glue between one mission and another. As we are about to see, if Massive Entertainment had also made the same effort in the narrative field in other aspects of the game, we could have seriously considered the hypothesis of promoting The Division 2 with flying colors.

Gameplay

From the moment you set foot on the White House which serves as the headquarters of the Division in Washington DC, we find ourselves literally overwhelmed by the amount of content that The Division 2 puts before our eyes. There game structure remains similar to that seen in 2016, but with an expanded range of possibilities starting from main missions to get to the conquest of the outposts in the hands of the enemies in the various districts, freeing which it is possible to obtain rewards. It is fortunate that the developers have thought of introducing a menu item to suggest the next activity to be carried out, which otherwise would risk being confused in front of the many things to do in The Division 2 already from the initial levels. The embarrassment of choice is not lacking even in terms of customization of the ability of your character, for which old and new gadgets are available to unlock during the race at level 30, taking advantage of the long ride to try which of the various possible combinations can best suit you.

Compared to its predecessor, The Division 2 simplifies the role dynamics in terms of management, making it much easier in practice to switch from one set of equipment to another to take on the role required by the situation we are facing. Returning to the missions, the structure at their base can be summarized in the clash with waves of enemies of increasingly higher level, until the appearance of one or more boss to be defeated to end the game. Compared to the first hours, also from the point of view of repetitiveness, we were able to appreciate steps forward, taking part in quite evocative clashes in the open between rain and lightning. As for the phases inside, we instead confirm what was said about a week ago: the often anonymous settings seen in the first The Division, Massive Entertainment is now followed by some very well thought out places from a purely artistic point of view, giving life to clashes memorable as the planetarium, where one of the most beautiful missions of the entire game is held. All the activities we carry out have as their ultimate goal the obtaining of a booty, which in the case of The Division 2 is consistently conspicuous. The update of theequipment it is guaranteed by loot present everywhere: whether it is in the simple wandering through the streets of the city or as the result of the commitment made in a mission to conquer an outpost, the reward is always guaranteed.

PlayStation 4 Trophies

The Division 2 has a total of forty-three Trophies. The usual Platinum that includes all the others is accompanied by four of the Gold type, five Silver and thirty-three Bronze. Among these we naturally find the one that rewards the completion of the campaign with the arrival at level thirty, which is not enough, however, to be sure that you have completed everything. To bring home all the objectives it is in fact necessary to get busy among the many activities made available by the developers, including the Black Zone and the various checkpoints scattered around the city.

Enemies and gunplay

Among the aspects of the first The Division that had caused some discussion there was also the excessive resistance of the enemies to the bullets fired, which in fact made our opponents of the sponges for bullets. While keeping its approach far from the concept of "one hit and die", The Division 2 abandons the path of its predecessor, thus allowing us to face more balanced encounters in which only a few bosses can absorb a higher amount of hits. A more than wise choice, thanks to which Massive Entertainment was also able to work on the versatility of the opposing units in the fight, governed by an excellent artificial intelligence. Once deployed on the field, the enemy units rarely remain stationary in their place, preferring a work of encirclement towards the group of players who are therefore urged to make an extra effort in terms of tactics, eliminating an opponent positioned in a key place or arranging oneself so as not to be taken by surprise.

From this point of view, the possibility of directing the fire of gadgets such as the turret or the drone to very specific enemies is particularly useful, thus allowing the player to cover any holes in the formation adopted in combat. We must always act avoiding taking a step longer than the leg, also to avoid the risk of finding yourself out of position when a new wave of enemies arrives. Remaining in the context of firefights, the gunplay of The Division 2 satisfied us in the same way as artificial intelligence. Whether it is a submachine gun, an assault rifle or a simple pistol, each weapon has its own behavior, which we must therefore learn to know in order to make the most of its strengths while limiting its weak ones. Using the against at our disposal (renewed in their management, now much simpler), it is however possible to customize some aspects of the weapon we have in hand, making it more suitable for our style of play.

Endgame sì, endgame no

After a series of evaluations related to this The Division 2 review, we have decided to postpone a more in-depth analysis of theendgame at a later time. The choice was dictated by the presence of a lot of usable content even before arriving at the fateful level thirty, including the PvP Conflict mode present from the early stages of the game. You will therefore soon find a new article dedicated to the endgame mechanics of The Division 2, about which it is however important to know of the addition of the so-called Black Tusk to the list of factions present in the game. The new group is equipped with high-level robotic units, to which we can respond with the specialization we choose at the end of the path for our character. Compared to the first game, in fact, the special ability is lacking, replaced in The Division 2 with a weapon linked to the choice between expert in demolitions, survival or hawk eye. The same specializations, along with the rest of the content, will be updated by Massive Entertainment over the next few months. After the lack of endgame experience of the first The Division at launch, the developers' plan for The Division 2 is in fact not to miss anything from its earliest stages: in the coming weeks the first of the eight-player raids promised for some time will arrive. , kicking off Year 1 content which, as announced by Ubisoft, will be free.

Graphics and sound

The review you are reading refers to the test of The Division 2 carried out on consoles PlayStation 4 Pro, therefore taken as a reference for the evaluation of the technical sector of the game. A sensible choice if we take into consideration the defects that we had found in the beta version dedicated to the Sony console, which appeared behind the PC and Xbox One editions. The sessions spent in the company of the final version of the game allowed us to better clarify the doubts we had about it, allowing us to appreciate again the Washington DC designed by Massive Entertainment in purely artistic terms: the city is appreciated for its colorful range of colors, as opposed to the snowy New York we had known previously. Months after the bioterrorist attack, the capital is witnessing the regrowth of vegetation, as well as the colonization by wild animal races that begin to wander the streets.

If in terms of charm the passage from New York to Washington DC made us ask some question marks, as already anticipated, the work done by Massive Entertainment makes the capital more lively and industrious, also distinguished as regards the factions of the Hyenas, True Sons and Forsaken by well-defined distinctive signs, as is the behavior of the units that make up the three groups. On a purely technical level, the number of on PS4 Pro seems to have decreased texture that were loaded late, even if an attentive eye may still be able to grasp elements that become more defined in the course of our passage or others that appear out of nowhere. We also report some crash of the game that forced us to return to the console dashboard, thus losing mission progress, along with a few episodes of dropping the number of frames per second. As for the audio sector, the soundtrack that accompanies us along with all the environmental effects is very good, with a dubbing in Spanish on average of a good level.

Comment

Tested version PlayStation 4 Digital Delivery Origin, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store Price 69,99 € Resources4Gaming.com

8.8

Readers (105)

8.1

Your vote

The Division 2 review does not take us by surprise, confirming what we have known for some time thanks to the numerous contacts we had with the game until its release. For those who have appreciated the first chapter this is exactly what was expected: a complete game in every aspect, where the continuity of the "more of the same" is comforted by what appears as an intelligent reasoning on each element modified or added with respect to the first chapter. Considering the similarities with the game three years ago and the belonging to the looter shooter genre it is more than likely that The Division 2 does not appeal to everyone, but the effort of Massive Entertainment manages to undoubtedly place itself at the top of this video game category.